


waiting for the right time

by liesmith



Category: NoPixel
Genre: Gift Fic, M/M, soft soft soft soft, tender aj feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24346870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liesmith/pseuds/liesmith
Summary: maybe love is overratedoraj doesn't know how feelings work
Relationships: AJ Hunter/Bobby Smith
Kudos: 20





	waiting for the right time

Bobby hasn’t had anything to eat all day.

That’s a weird thing to notice with your one, two, three, four, five, six night stand.

AJ knows he shouldn’t be spying, but he can see into Bobby’s office as he comes up from the holding cells, hands lingering on the banister as he watches the blond light up a cigarette and lean back in his chair, staring at a pile of paperwork with what appears to be disgust.

AJ shares the sentiment.

He’s quiet as he drags his fingers along the wood, carefully stepping out from behind the double doors. His eyes linger on the office; if AJ remembers right, Bobby has a meeting in twenty minutes with Metzger. Why does he remember that? AJ frowns but pushes the thought away, thinks maybe, he could just… get Bobby some food, slip it in, and vanish. Nobody would know, especially not Bobby, and AJ was fine with that.

He’s brought out of his thoughts when Brian claps him on the back, making the brunet jump a mile and hold a hand to his chest, giving a sour glance at the man beside him.

“What?” Brian laughs, hand clamping down on AJ’s shoulder and giving a squeeze, “you looked lost! Let’s get out there, AJ.”

“... I’m gonna go alone for a few, okay? I’ll let you know when we can ride,” AJ steps away, giving one small glance back at Bobby before turning his attention back to the blond by his side (not the one he wants, anyways), “promise, Brian.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

AJ just gives a small wave before leaving MRPD, taking the steps two at a time and heading to his car, giving one glance back at the front doors.

In exactly twenty-two minutes, AJ hops back up those steps and ducks down, just a little, to see past the blinds in Bobby’s office. Completely empty. He just hums as he carefully opens the door, setting a bag of fast food down onto the desk. It’s not the greatest, but if Bobby isn’t eating, then this was better than nothing.

He could leave, good deed for the day done, reap his beautiful good boy karma, but… AJ glances at the door, a quick lookout, before he rounds Bobby’s desk. He digs briefly through a drawer before finding a little notepad and scribbles onto it, leaving the paper on the desk.

_Eat. I don’t want you to die, then Metzger might be chief D:_

_I’m free tonight. Call me._

That’s pushing it, but AJ doesn’t mind. Bobby will know it’s him, anyways.

And he does take a few french fries, for his hard work, but Bobby doesn’t have to know that’s him.

* * *

A week passes.

AJ finds that life is not as exciting to live when Bobby isn’t around to experience it with him. Not in a loving, romantic way or anything. No way. AJ doesn’t _do_ that. He just… misses his blond eye candy, that’s all, so he just pulls long shifts, as much time he can to do anything but think about Bobby and the soft lines around his eyes when he smiles at AJ, the way his lips turn up at the corners. AJ’s never seen him smile like that at anyone else; not even Raven.

A knock on his car window startles him out of his daydream, making him jump and bang his head on the roof. Fuck! AJ grunts, rubbing his head as he rolls his window down, squinting over his sunglasses at the jerk who bothered to annoy him on his lunch.

“Sleeping on the job, Hunter?” Bobby’s voice is soft, amused, an arm on the top of his cruiser and the other on his hip. AJ immediately flushes, clearing his throat and looking ahead, fingers gripping his steering wheel immediately.

“N-No way, Bobby. It’s my lunch, you know? I still get those.”

“For now,” Bobby leans down into his space, eye making contact with AJ’s over his sunglasses, “thank you for the food, last week.”

AJ gives a nervous laugh, shoulders sagging as he just turns his body slightly towards Bobby. “How’d you know it was me?”

“Nobody else cares.”

Oh. AJ clears his throat. “It’s just because Metzger will be mean to me, you know? I can’t have that, I do my own thing.”

“Ah, yes. You being an idiot.”

“Hey!” AJ laughs, scratching at his scruff, “I’m your best sergeant.”

“I don’t know,” Bobby hums, straightening his pose to look towards the front steps of MRPD before bending back down to look at AJ, “McClane’s looking pretty cute, lately. The haircut helped.”

“Bobby!”

Bobby laughs and AJ can’t help but join in, covering his face with a hand to hide his embarrassment. A hand reaches up to curl fingers delicately around his wrist, pulling it away as Bobby looks at him again, soft smile still on his face. The hand slides into his, fingers enclosing around one another. AJ just stares as nerves set in, unsure of what to do. Should he pull back? Kiss Bobby’s soft knuckles, cut up from some sort of scuffle? He opens his mouth before closing it, deciding he doesn’t want to ruin the moment by being a walking moron.

“... Text me later,” Bobby says softly and does everything AJ can’t, pulls the gloved hand to his mouth and kisses the back of his palm, “I’ll be around.”

And he’s gone before AJ can process anything, eyes boring a hole into the back of his palm.

Shit. This was no good.

It’s around one am when AJ’s practically manhandled to the receptionist desk by Copper, complaining about how he _can’t_ pull a twenty-four hour shift, _go_ the fuck home, you’re so fucking _dumb_ Hunter, so AJ sheepishly does as she says. Texting Bobby has been on his mind since the afternoon and every spare second he gets to himself, all AJ can do is pull up their texts and stare at the last one Bobby had sent him, nearly three weeks ago, the reason why he hasn’t texted Bobby.

_Door’s unlocked. Love you._

AJ knew it couldn’t have been meant for him, had to be Zelda, but then again, he never asked, and maybe that makes him a fucking fool in the end. So now, forced to retreat to the locker room to leave his essentials behind, he stares at their texts again. All he had to do was just say hello and break the ice. That was literally _all_ he had to do.

Instead, AJ grabs his jacket and pockets his phone and pretends that Bobby isn’t giving him an in, a way to crawl back under his blankets. Just had to pretend this _wasn’t_ what AJ was hoping it was. He takes a small little jog out back to the lobby, giving a passing glance towards the chief’s office. Didn’t hurt, never hurts. He’s just looking, right? No harm in looking.

The lights are dim, save for a tiny desk light turned away from the couch, facing towards the back wall. Curiosity creeps and AJ slowly turns the knob of the door, peeking, taking a step inside and looking around the wall.

Bobby’s asleep on the couch, curled up with his arms under his head.

Without even thinking, AJ steps into the office further and walks over to Bobby, laying his jacket down over the blond. He looked cold, anyways. AJ stands there for a moment before nerves push him forward and he leans down, hand gently on Bobby’s head as he kisses the blond’s temple, and carefully removes his sunglasses and set them on the desk, next to the light. He hesitates briefly, the desire to wake Bobby up and bring him home, just cover Bobby’s body with his own and kiss him for hours, but-

Too vulnerable.

He leaves quickly, a tightness in his chest and a sting in his eyes, fidgeting with his phone, unable to do anything but pretend he’s busy, but the texts with Bobby are still pulled up front and center. AJ bites on his bottom lip and shoves his phone back into his pocket, feeling frustrated with himself. Bobby _wanted_ him, and he had to go and be him, be an absolute idiot with no way to explain or account for any of his feelings.

AJ lingers on the stairs, hand gripped tight on the bannister as he looks towards the street and then back over his shoulder at the dimmed lights of MRPD. He swallows hard and then turns, hopping back up the steps as he pushes open the front doors, jogging to the office door and nearly banging it open as he stumbles in, Bobby still curled up soft on the couch, shoulder scrunching up at the sudden sound. AJ hesitates when he realizes Bobby is possibly waking up, hand feeling clammy around the door knob, but he forces the nerves down as he goes back to the couch, kneeling beside it. He grabs Bobby’s face, squishing his cheeks up as AJ kisses him, causing the blond to tense up for a moment before he’s responding and AJ melts, whimpers something soft into the kiss and pulls back, staring at Bobby’s sleepy, confused face.

“... Hunter.”

“Bobby, come home with me,” AJ breathes out, mind in a daze, “come home with me, I’m… so stupid. I didn’t notice any of it, I…”

“You are stupid,” Bobby is sitting up, looking at the jacket that falls into his lap. Slowly, he turns it over in his hands, as if contemplating the jacket over AJ’s words instead, “better late than never, right?”

AJ laughs, head dropping to Bobby’s lap, forehead against a knee. A hand cards through his hair, cups the back of his neck and just tickles the soft baby hairs, making the brunet squirm, turning his face to look up at Bobby. “... Come home with me,” He repeats again, as if he hasn’t begged twice before, and Bobby just gently cups AJ’s cheek, thumbing over a faded grease mark.

“I was waiting for that,” Bobby pinches the back of his neck before nudging AJ, the brunet obediently getting up and stepping back to let Bobby up. He stretches, quietly sliding AJ’s slightly snugger coat onto himself. Bobby goes to his desk, turning the light off and grabbing his sunglasses, sliding them snugly into the breast pocket of his shirt. Keys are grabbed and without a word he leaves, AJ staring dumbstruck for a moment before realizing, oh right, him too, he should leave too.

The brunet jogs to catch up with Bobby, instantly wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him in close. “Can I drive the Camaro?”

“Is that all I’m good for?” Bobby teases, pressing the keys into AJ’s hands, “to fuck and let you drive my car?”

“Nah,” AJ hums, tossing the keys up and down as they go to the garage besides MRPD, watching the light catch on the overly cute keychains on the ring, “nah, you’re good for a lot of things. Promise!”

“Uhhuh,” Bobby murmurs, pulling away from AJ as the brunet jogs down to grab the car from the garage. He pulls up after a few moments, winking at Bobby from inside.

“Come here often, handsome?”

Bobby snorts, rolling his eye from behind his sunglasses as he climbs in, leaning over to give AJ’s cheek a kiss. “Bring me home, Hunter.”

AJ’s stomach flutters at the words, ducking his head and clearing his throat, trying to not act completely embarrassed about it as he pulls out of the parking lot, turning down towards his apartment, wondering briefly if it was even habitable. Hopefully Bobby wouldn’t care if it was a mess. He’s quiet as he turns the radio on low, listening to the soft synth beat fill the silence. He settles a hand on the gear stick as he drives, eyes lid as he stops at a red light, and he tenses briefly as a hand slides over his on the stick. AJ is quiet as he turns his hand upwards and lets Bobby’s fingers slide between his, holding maybe a little too tight onto him, but Bobby doesn’t say anything.

The drive to his place feels so long, but AJ wouldn’t want it any other way, no matter how tight his chest feels, pulling slow up to Integrity. The synth beat fades and another song replaces it and AJ is quiet as he turns to face Bobby, leaning over their clasped hands to kiss the blond. Bobby returns it soft, free hand reaching up to lay his hand against AJ’s cheek, and the brunet melts at the tenderness.

“... I love you,” He says, soft as he pulls back, heart hammering in his throat, “Bobby, I think I love you.”

“You’re stupid,” Bobby responds but he’s smiling, stroking under AJ’s eye, smearing what’s left of the grease paint, “I love you too.”

The brunet’s mind kicks onto autopilot as he let’s Bobby take control, following him up to his own god damn door, watches as Bobby finds his keys in the jacket’s pockets, unlocks his own damn door and pulls AJ into his own damn apartment.

The place is dark except for a few plug in night lights to guide their way, but it’s enough for Bobby to find his bedroom in the barely there glow. In his room, AJ stands awestruck as Bobby dresses down, left in just his unbuttoned work shirt and briefs. Nothing is said as he climbs into AJ’s bed, settling into the space against the wall, and AJ finally swallows around the lump in his throat.

He matches Bobby’s state of undress, though he leaves his shirt on the floor next to the rest of their clothes. Quiet, he settles into the bed besides Bobby onto his side, staring at the blond. Cautiously, he reaches out, touching Bobby’s hair, and then his cheek, before his hand trails down down down, over his shoulder, over his arm, down his wrist. Bobby’s hand opens for him and AJ slides their fingers together again, pulling their clasped hands to his chest, wonders if his heart hammering in his chest is enough to make Bobby vibrate from the force.

Nothing needs to be said. Bobby moves closer, lets a leg slide over one of AJ’s as they melt into one another, AJ tucking his face into the crook of Bobby’s neck as the other nuzzles into his soft hair, a thumb running over AJ’s knuckles.

Sleep takes him sooner than AJ wants, but all he can think about is _this, this is all I want all I need Bobby Bobby Bobby_ , and he knows when he wakes up in the morning, Bobby will still be here, kissing him and talking sweet, and they’ll go get breakfast, and maybe drive down to the beach and swim, and

They’ll be in love.

**Author's Note:**

> for a lovely friend
> 
> normally i don't do this but from the car ride down if you listen to midnight city by m83 berhaps emotions will be felt.
> 
> normansbones @ twitter


End file.
